As I write this, it is Saturday morning, about 8:30, one week after Vogue Knitting Live. The first snow of the winter (the Oct. 29 storm was NOT winter) is falling, Vogue Knitting Live is becoming a distant memory as the Knitterati gather in Phoenix this weekend for TNNA (The National Needlearts Association) but I have two more interviews to write up.

Today, I have the distinct pleasure of writing about my interview with Franklin Habit, the author of “It Itches,” a book of cartoons about knitting. Although he has only been designing knitting patterns for two years, Franklin has achieved star status in the knitting world, largely because of his outrageously funny humor and his popular blog, the Panopticon[2]. Franklin also has a huge following on Facebook, where he posts usually funny and always perceptive observations daily. If you haven’t friended him yet, I recommend it. His morning posts are a great way to start the day.

Franklin began designing patterns a couple of years ago when the university where he worked reorganized, or as he phrased it, “restructured.” He said that gave him an opportunity to pursue designing. At that time, he was not a teacher, but his mentors in the knitting world told him that to make a go of it, he’d have to teach knitting lessons, too.

“I discovered I love teaching,” Franklin said.

He’s also become very popular as a teacher. He’s taught at all the Vogue Knitting Live conferences, at the big Knit Nation conference in London last summer (where I think he acquired his kilt), at Sock Summit, at the Men who Knit conference, and I believe he will be at the Squam Lake retreat in June. At VKL last weekend, he taught “Photographing your fiber,” “Lace Edgings, Before, During and After,” “Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Totem Jacket,” “Knitted Tessellations” and “Working with antique and vintage patterns.”

From reading his blog, I knew that Franklin particularly loves antique patterns, so we talked about them for a bit. He distinguishes “antique” from “vintage.” Antique patterns, he said, are generally early 20th or late 19th century or even older, whereas “vintage” are usually mid-2oth century. He loves the antique ones, especially Victorian and Edwardian styles.

Franklin has been collecting antique patterns for years, and he enjoys “translating them” into modern knitting language. The old patterns, he said, presume that knitters automatically know things that a lot of today’s knitters don’t know, so he tries to fill in the gaps. He also rewrites instructions in language that today’s knitters will understand better, like “ssk” instead of “slip a stitch, k1, and psso (pass slipped stitch over).” Since Barbara Walker started using “ssk” in the 1980s, nobody uses psso anymore.

“I love the early 20th century child styles,” he said. “I like the old style charm, the tailored detail.”

He said people don’t dress their children nearly as well today, and that many styles are so bad, the children always look sloppy and unkempt. I think he used the word “atrocious.”

Franklin doesn’t have any children of his own, but he has a four-year-old niece for whom he recently designed a beautiful lace cape and hood,[3] which was posted on his blog.

“She’s in the princess phase,” he said. “She wanted to have a big deep hood like a princess.”

She apparently got this idea from Disney, but it works for Franklin. And so many of us have asked him for an adult version that he’s promised that he’s working on it. He said the adult hood probably won’t be quite as deep.

Most of Franklin’s fans know about Dolores, his sidekick (imaginary) friend. Dolores is a sheep who arrived in a package with some yarn that he ordered from a sheep farm, and she refuses to go home. She’s very opinionated and funny, and Franklin thinks she might be running for president this year. He told me what he thinks her campaign slogan would be, and though I promised not to reveal it, I have to say, it had me laughing so hard that Franklin had better use it.

All in good time. I can tell you, though, that she’ll be running on the Fiberation Party ticket.

I asked Franklin if he had any advice for new designers.

“I’m so new, people are still explaining it to me,” Franklin said. “But designers should understand that a great deal more is taking place than just knitting something up, taking notes as you go and then publishing them. You need to have test knitters try your pattern out, and you should pay for a good tech editor. And you should present yourself professionally. Designing is a business, and you should treat it like a business.”

He said that when presenting a design to a publisher, you need a good swatch, a good sketch and a clear articulation of your vision.

Does he have any new books in the works? Yes, but not of cartoons. “And that’s all I can say,” he said.

One day at every knitting conference, Franklin wears his kilt. I was lucky enough to interview him on the day he wore his kilt to Vogue Knitting Live, especially since it was quite cold outside. I posted his photo on Facebook on Wednesday, the same day I posted it on this blog for the first time. Among the many raves, Carol Sulcoski said she was making it the wallpaper on her computer.

Article printed from In Stitches: http://blogs.mycentraljersey.com/institches